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The acting head of the Social Security Administration admitted that he doesn’t know exactly what the “DOGE kids” have been doing with Americans’ sensitive data, according to a bombshell audio recording.
An hour-long meeting last week led by the department’s acting commissioner, Leland Dudek, was captured on an audio recording shared with ProPublica, where he repeatedly referred to young staffers at the Department of Government Efficiency as the “DOGE kids,” and confirmed they had “broad access” to Social Security numbers and personal data.
Addressing what DOGE staffers had been doing with Social Security data, Dudek reportedly asked at one point in the meeting: “Are we going to break something? I don’t know.”
But he added that he “actually like[s] having the kids around” despite them being unfamiliar with the “nuances” of the department. “They’re learning. Let people learn. They’re going to make mistakes,” Dudek reportedly said. “They’re thinking about work differently.”
One of his deputies in the meeting added it was a “victory” that there was not more misinformation because the DOGE staffers “are being educated.”
In a bid to reassure employees, Dudek reportedly said that if Elon Musk’s techies did anything illegal with Americans’ Social Security numbers or data, he would investigate and have them “potentially prosecuted.”
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The Independent has contacted the Social Security Administration and DOGE for comment.
The agency is currently undergoing deep cuts in the drastic shake-up being driven by DOGE, Dudek reportedly confirmed in the meeting. When asked who is in charge, Dudek responded: “It’s DOGE – not the DOGE kids, it’s the DOGE management,” CNN reported.
Dudek, who was promoted by the Trump administration to acting commissioner last month, alluded to “tough choices [he] didn’t agree with” that the president wanted but did not specify what they were.
“I work for the president. I need to do what the president tells me to do,” the recording of Dudek said, according to ProPublica.
“I don’t want to fire anyone,” he added. But “a lot of the structural changes that you’ve seen me make at headquarters, I’ve had long conversations with the White House about, and the DOGE team…And that’s not to say I don’t have some more hard choices to come. The president has an agenda. I’m a political appointee. I need to follow that agenda.”
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Dudek also used the meeting to dispel false claims of fraud within the agency, peddled by Musk and the president, who have stated that millions of dead people are collecting Social Security. Dudek said that the claims were “B.S.”
At the end of February, the agency announced plans to cut roughly 7,000 staff from its 57,000-strong workforce, sparking concerns that the loss of so many experienced employees could trigger technical faults and interrupt the benefits payments systems.
Martin O’Malley, Social Security commissioner under the Biden administration, warned that DOGE was “driving” the agency to collapse.
“It will lead to interruptions in service, and that will ultimately cascade into more frequent system interruptions for the processing of claims, ultimately leading to system collapse and eventually the interruption of benefits,” O’Malley told CNN.
The concerns were addressed in the meeting. “I don’t want the system to collapse,” Dudek reportedly said. It “would be catastrophic for the people in our country.”
The Trump administration has pushed back on accusations that people will lose their entitlement to benefits. “The Trump Administration will not cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits,” the White House said in a statement Tuesday. “President Trump himself has said it (over and over and over again).”
The leaked audio comes after an ousted Social Security civil servant warned DOGE’S haphazard takeover of the agency risked data of millions of Americans “leaking into the wrong hands.”
Tiffany Flick, a civil servant of 30 years, detailed the speed with which a DOGE associate was parachuted into the administration to access sensitive data.
Flick, who was forced out last month, said she was “seriously concerned” that Social Security programs can continue to run without disruption and did not rule out that benefits could be delayed or not paid out at all as a result of DOGE’s takeover.
